The top-flight supremo said he hoped the new push would help to tackle the “elements of unacceptable behaviour” towards officials in the Premier League, most notably “visibly disrespectful behaviour, mass confrontation and the like.”

He added: “The players and managers have been supportive and the match officials understand the need to deal with these issues on the odd occasions when emotions spill over into unacceptable behaviour.”

The Premier League’s message is typically positive, but Scudamore and his colleagues know that actions speak louder than words – and a 74% vote of no-confidence suggests that they still have a lot of convincing to do.

The optimistic 26% who do expect to see an improvement in behaviour this season may at least find some encouragement in the opening two weekends’ action, which have been relatively flashpoint-free.

Arsenal’s Gervinho and Newcastle’s Joey Barton failed to cover themselves in glory – they received a red and yellow card respectively – but theirs was a clash of players rather than players vs officials, the type of scenario that Get on with the Game is most keen to avoid, focusing this term on:

Freelance writer, editor and copywriter, with a passion for grassroots sport. A right back turned football writer, Dan is the former editor of Club Website and has been lucky enough to work in the field of grassroots and community sport for the last 10 years.

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